Much as I love mash, there's no denying that, in a game of comfort food top trumps, pasta would hold the winning card. Unlike potatoes or porridge or steaming puddings, it's a dish that's as satisfying in the Mediterranean heat of June as it is in the damp depths of autumn. Thick papardelle tossed with a hearty rabbit ragu can take the chill off the frostiest of November nights, while chilli-spiked spaghetti studded with plump briney clams is the very essence of an Italian summer's evening. And while the former will simmer quietly for hours, spaghetti alle vongole can be on the table in the time it takes your guests to heave themselves out of their deckchairs and into the dining room.

Pasta with clams sounds fairly self-explanatory – but, as with any self-respecting Italian recipe, things are never quite so simple. Like that other great spaghetti dish (well, in Britain at least), vongoles divide into two broad camps – those with tomatoes ("red", as they'd be called in the States) and those without ("bianco"). Nigella is very firm in specifying the latter to kick off her last meal while Jamie says he likes the "subtle sweetness and colour" tomatoes bring to the party. So who's right?

Old school

I start off making the most tomatoey version I can find, from Elizabeth David's Italian Food. The recipe shows its age: David is forced to sadly concede that, as clams are unobtainable in this country, mussels or cockles make an acceptable substitute – "but fresh ones, not the lethally vinegared kind in jars". (One can almost see the very words shudder at the thought.)

Having tracked down some clams with relative ease, I clean them and put them in a hot pan, then pick the meat from the open shells. This is added to a sauce made from sautéed onions and garlic and a tin of tomatoes, along with a handful of chopped parsley, and served with cooked spaghetti. The effect is curiously unlike any vongole I've had before – the clams get lost in the sharp tomato sauce, and I miss the heat of the chilli. This may have passed muster in 1954, but I think we can do better today.

Cherry red vongole

Gwyneth Paltrow's spaghetti alle vongole. Photograph: Guardian

Despite my natural scepticism regarding the qualifications of whippet-slim starlets to pronounce on matters culinary, I am forced to concede that Gwyneth Paltrow's use of cherry tomatoes in the vongole recipe in her new cookbook may be a stroke of genius.

In theory these pert little beauties should be sweet enough to provide a counterpoint to the salty clams without the lengthy reducing process more acidic larger fruit would demand. Instead the tomatoes are lightly crushed and simmered in white wine before the clams are added to the pan, breaking down to release their flavour into the sauce, while remaining intact enough to add blobs of vibrant colour to the dish – a nice counterpoint to the purply shells of the seafood. However, I'm still not convinced: it tastes good, but the briny, seaside note of the seafood is overpowered by the sweet and sour flavour of the tomatoes. I'm with Antonio Carluccio on this one – vongole bianco all the way.

Simple

Angela Hartnett and Giorgio Locatelli, Michelin-starred chefs both, give very similar, strikingly simple instructions for vongole in their respective recipe books, Cucina and Made in Italy. Garlic and chilli are softened in a pan, and then joined by clams and white wine, and left to steam away for a couple of minutes. Once the shells are open, the whole lot is tossed with spaghetti, sprinkled with chopped parsley, and served – easy as that.

The fresh chilli adds a sweeter, cleaner note than the dried one used by Gwyneth, and I like Locatelli's advice about allowing the pasta to sit in the sauce for a minute or so to absorb a little of it: it improves the flavour of the entire dish.

Butter

River Café spaghetti alle vongole with butter. Photograph: Felicity Cloake for the Guardian

The River Café Classic Cookbook admits using butter in a vongole is unorthodox – but harnessing its emulsifying properties to thicken the sauce is a tip Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray say they picked up from a seaside restaurant just outside Rome, and it's a good one. Cut with extra virgin olive oil, it gives the dish a richer, more satisfying texture, while still allowing the flavours of its few ingredients to shine.

Mushrooms and other fripperies

River Café spaghetti alle vongole with porcini. Photograph: Felicity Cloake for the Guardian

The same can't be said of the River Café Christmas vongole, in which the seafood is completely drowned in a thick, earthy sauce of porcini mushrooms, tinned tomatoes and oregano. This is a definite special occasion vongole, given I have to make another sauce from the clam cooking liquid, and combine the two – only the work of half an hour, but if that means 20 minutes less in the sunshine then the results have to be pretty striking. The finished dish, however, while tasty, is a definite disappointment for anyone expecting seafood: indeed, if it weren't for the pile of shells next to the plate, I'm not sure I would have been able to identify the clams at all.

The same recipe also includes the fennel seeds employed by Gwyneth Paltrow. Although in theory the aniseed flavour should pair perfectly with seafood, in this instance it adds a distracting sweet herby note that spoils the zesty partnership between garlic and clam. Gwyneth also sticks in anchovies (far too strong) and tops her vongole with basil, which similarly confuses the tastebuds – the sharp pepperiness of flat-leaf parsley is a better foil for the flavours beneath.

Perfect spaghetti alle vongole

Spaghetti vongole is a light, summery dish that should be kept as simple as possible – if you're splashing out on fresh clams, then it's a shame to lose them in a maelstrom of other flavours. Saying that, the bivalves I happened upon were so beautifully sweet that they called out for a spritz of lemon, which also cuts through the buttery richness of the River Café inspired sauce, keeping the whole thing spanking fresh. Cin cin!

1. Rinse the clams in cold running water, and scrub if necessary, then put them into a large bowl and cover with cold water. Salt generously and leave for a couple of hours, then drain and rinse well to remove any grit or sand.

2. Put the spaghetti into a large pan of salted boiling water and cook for a couple of minutes under the recommended time, until nearly done.

3. Meanwhile, put half the butter and all the olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat and soften the garlic and chilli.

4. Add the drained clams, and turn up the heat. Pour in the wine, cover and leave for a couple of minutes until most of them have opened. Discard any that are still closed. Add the others to the sauce, picking a few out of their shells for variety.

5. Drain the spaghetti and add to the pan along with the remaining butter. Toss well and leave for a minute, then stir through the chopped parsley, lemon zest and juice, season to taste and serve.

What's your favourite summer pasta dish, or do you prefer to keep your seafood simple? And, wintery chowder apart, what else do you cook with clams?